Epos – an instrument for the assessment of the ethical position in software development

Digital technology becomes more powerful, intelligent, pervasive and ubiquitous. Ethical aspects of this development have not yet drawn the appropriate attention of researchers and engineers. This paper presents an instrument that aims at measuring the individual ethical position with regard to the design and development of computer software. The development of the Epos tool was based on two data collections. The data of the first survey (n₁ = 147 participants) were used to select items and to determine the factorial structure of the questionnaire. Results show that the Epos instrument reliably assesses peoples’ ethical opinion with respect to five central components: (1) regulation, (2) data privacy, (3) domain specific knowledge, (4) societal responsibility and (5) company responsibility. In the second survey, we determined the stability of the instruments factor structure by assessing a sample of n₂?=?196 participants. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the initial factor structure. Next steps and further implications are discussed regarding the final version of the questionnaire.     

Contribution to the history of gerontology in Germany in the 2nd half of our century

In this paper some trends of gerontology during the last 45 years in Germany are described. A survey of the development of gerontology in the former GDR is followed by an analysis of the "Zeitschrift für Alternsforschung" from 1980-1990. The main result is the predominance of publications on the care system since the middle of the 1980s. With regard to the development of gerontology in the western part of Germany, an analysis of publications in the "Zeitsschrift für Gerontologie" from 1968-1991 shows changes in the main topics during this period. Until the middle of the 1970s there was a predominance of publications in the field of: intelligence, learning, memory and perception. The emphasis of publications from 1977-1985 was on stress and coping. In the middle of the 1980s there was an increasing interest in the analysis of social network and competence in the elderly. The paper discusses these trends of gerontological research in the eastern and western parts of Germany.     

Bicyclische Oxalamidine – Bausteine für hochsubstituierte 2,2′-Bipyridine und Benzolderivate

Bicyclic Oxalic Amidines as Building Blocks for Highly Substituted 2,2′-Bipyridines and Benzene Derivatives The bis-imidoylchlorides 1 derived from oxalic acid exhibit a high regio- and chemoselectivity. As in the case of 2-picolylamine 2 the acylation with oxalyl chloride furnished the expected open chained oxalic diamides 3a while the imidoylchlorides 1 yield exclusively the new pyrido[1,2-a]-pyrazines 4 . These heterocycles represent readily crystallisable and orange-red coloured compounds with a mesomeric dipolar aromatic substructure. The synthetic value of 4 is based on their easy transformation into highly substituted arenes and hetarenes. Thus, electron deficient dienophiles as dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate lead to the bipyridines 6 via Hetero-Diels-Alder-Reaction and subsequent 1,5-hydrogen shift. In a complex reaction the derivatives of maleic acid 7a – c yield the bipyridines of type 9 while the new hexasubstituted arenes 10 can be isolated under anaerobic conditions and with an excess of dienophilic component. A x-ray structural determination of 10b shows an alternation of bond lenghts in the benzene ring. This can be considered as a distinct disturbance of aromaticity caused by the arrangement of substituents.     

An integrated system solution for supply chain optimization in the chemical process industry

This paper considers a complex scheduling problem in the chemical process industry involving batch production. The application described comprises a network of production plants with interdependent production schedules, multi-stage production at multi-purpose facilities, and chain production. The paper addresses three distinct aspects: (i) a scheduling solution obtained from a genetic algorithm based optimizer, (ii) a mechanism for collaborative planning among the involved plants, and (iii) a tool for manual updates and schedule changes. The tailor made optimization algorithm simultaneously considers alternative production paths and facility selection as well as product and resource specific parameters such as batch sizes, and setup and cleanup times. The collaborative planning concept allows all the plants to work simultaneously as partners in a supply chain resulting in higher transparency, greater flexibility, and reduced response time as a whole. The user interface supports monitoring production schedules graphically and provides custom-built utilities for manual changes to the production schedule, investigation of various what-if scenarios, and marketing queries. RID="*" ID="*" The authors would like to thank Hans-Otto Günther and Roland Heilmann for helpful comments on draft versions of this paper.     

Development of a multichannel fluorescence affinity sensor system

A multichannel fluorometer is proposed for analysis of biochemical reactions. The sensor is based on the luminescence generation in the evanescent field of a totally reflected laser beam. For transduction, multiple reflection elements are used. Multichannel operation is realized, including the possibility of applying different solutions to each channel at the same time. First experimental results, obtained with fluorescein or Cy5 as labels in a model hybridization assay, demonstrate the applicability and allow the detection of 3-10 fmol injected fluorescently labeled oligonucleotide.     

Real-time detection of nucleic acid interactions by total internal reflection fluorescence

This paper describes the development of an optical readout system for the real-time analysis of fluorescent-labeled DNA microarrays is described. The system is targeted toward research applications in genomics, agriculture, and life sciences, where the end-point detection of state-of-the-art readout systems does not provide sufficient information on the hybridization process. The hybridization progress of molecules from the liquid phase in a flow cell to immobilized oligonucleotides on a transducer surface can be observed. The excitation of fluorochromes is realized by a semiconductor laser, and the fluorescence emission is collected by a cooled CCD camera. Quantitative data can be extracted from the images for analysis of the microarray. For the signal transduction, the principle of total internal reflection is used. With a multiple internal reflection arrangement, the sensor chip was adapted to the standard microscope slide format and a homogeneous evanescent illumination of the active area of the sensor surface was achieved. An application measurement was carried out with this readout system. The hybridization of Cy5-labeled 30-mer single-stranded oligonucleotides to fully complementary immobilized strands was observed in real time. A kinetic analysis was demonstrated with the recorded data. Melting curves of a 140-mer PCR product from a hemochromatosis patient sample hybridized to immobilized wild-type mutant 15- and 17-mer oligonucleotides were recorded and single-point mutations could be detected.     

Algorithmen zum automatischen Zeichnen von Graphen

Zusammenfassung   Das Zeichnen von Graphen ist ein junges aufblühendes Gebiet der Informatik. Es befa?t sich mit Entwurf, Analyse, Implementierung und Evaluierung von neuen Algorithmen für ?sthetisch sch?ne Zeichnungen von Graphen. Anhand von selektierten Anwendungsbeispielen, Problemstellungen und L?sungsans?tzen wollen wir in dieses noch relativ unbekannte Gebiet einführen und gleichzeitig einen überblick über die Aktivit?ten und Ziele einer von der DFG im Rahmen des Schwerpunktprogramms „Effiziente Algorithmen für Diskrete Probleme und ihre Anwendungen“ gef?rderten Arbeitsgruppe aus Mitgliedern der Universit?ten Halle, K?ln und Passau und des Max-Planck-Instituts für Informatik in Saarbrücken geben. Eingegangen am 22.05.1996, in überarbeiteter Form am 19.02.1997